Liquid happiness…
Coffee…it’s the best part of my day. It’s so great that I make it the best part of my day multiple times throughout the day! And of course, the fresh, clear, cold air of winter enhances that simple daily pleasure. Sniff the fresh air, sip the delicious aromatic coffee, sniff, sip, sniff, sip. Ahhhhhhhh. If you love coffee I needn’t say more, you know what it is. If you don’t love coffee, I’m sorry, and I hope you have a comparable pleasure.
You don’t need me to write a coffee commercial complete with misty morning imagery, acoustic guitar, a step out onto the porch to survey the pastoral landscape, sitting down for an intimate conversation, or packing up for a day of rewarding productivity like marathon training or horseback riding. Coffee with its distinctive fragrance and deeply embedded cultural connotations immediately summons images, memories, people, and places. For me coffee evokes that delicious pause in the morning before or between the busy, hectic, and pressing demands of the day. It makes me think of my family, my parents and grandparents especially: drinking coffee with my parents in the morning and socializing over coffee as a family. It’s a work break activity that makes me think of little sojourns with colleagues to coffee stands and cafes. It also calls forth fond memories of people and places of the past where fun, conversation, and amusement characterized our interactions.
In recent years I’ve adopted a habit of fasting until the afternoon with the exception of my morning coffee. Formerly I was a black coffee drinker. None of that sugar and cream business ever touched my dark liquid happiness. Since I’ve been fasting, it’s been harder on my stomach to tolerate coffee (past a couple cups, and I definitely want more than a couple), so I have started drinking it with heavy cream. It don’t take much cream at all to blend a richer coffee drink, and it works very well to satiate me and let me consume as much coffee as I desire. Another recent adaptation I’ve made to coffee consumption was motivated by the rising price of the precious roasted beans. I ended up experimenting with other brands and purchased a couple substandard bags of ground coffee. Even with the cream they were nearly unpalatable. To help smooth out the taste, I began adding cinnamon regularly to the grounds in the French press prior to pouring water over them. What a change that made! It’s subtle, yet has a notable impact on the palate mellowing out the flavor without loosing the stimulating coffee taste. Even in tastier blends adding cinnamon is still an enhancement, and I use it in almost every carafe. It’s good whether adding cream or not, and it only amplifies the aromatic qualities of the coffee.
Brewing…
Of course I experimented with other spices, and I’ve found both ground cloves and nutmeg are lovely additions to coffee. With all this experimentation, I’ve arrived at a winter blend of spices for brewing spiced coffee.
Spiced Coffee Spice Blend
Total prep time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- Ground Cinnamon
- Ground Cloves
- Ground Allspice
- Ground Nutmeg
- Cocoa Powder
Instructions:
- In an empty spice jar, fill half way with cinnamon.
- In the remaining space, fill one-third with cloves and another third with allspice.
- In the remaining space, fill one-half with nutmeg and the rest with cocoa powder.
- Close jar and shake to mix.
Adjust spice proportions to taste. For a cholate-ier mix add more cocoa powder rather than cloves and allspice. Creating a mix with ground ginger (avoid using too much) can produce a gingerbread flavored blend. Have fun with it!
To Use:
- Add ground coffee to French Press or coffee filter.
- Dust ground coffee with a thin, but covering layer of the spice blend.
- Pour over with boiling water to brew.
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